Jimmy Stu Lives!

Jimmy Stu Lives! - a science-fiction novel about an aging leader if a mega church in present day Nashville who loses his faith and convinces his followers God wants him preserved cryogenically when he dies, for a mission in the future. When he's reanimated 140 years later, he finds the government ruled by religious factions, and leaders of his own church aren't happy to see him come back to life! More

Jimmy Stu Lives! is science-fiction. It involves an elderly leader of a mega church in present-day Nashville, who loses his faith and convinces his followers that God wants him preserved by cryogenics when he dies - for a mission to the future. He gets his wish and 140 years after dying is reanimated.

One has to be careful, of course, what one wishes for: His church has become a major faith, and millions of faithful view him as a prophet. Further, the US has fragmented into spheres of influence controlled by various faiths. And, oh yes, the leaders of his church view him as a threat, had no desire to reanimate him - it was done illicitly - and wish to return him to 'suspended animation.'

Into the ensuing adventure story, the novel weaves reflections on faith and its corruption, along with satire on efforts to erode church/state separation.

Kent McDaniel lives in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood, where he spends a lot of time playing music, writing prose, and walking around. He grew up down in the Ohio River Valley, but likes Chicago – except for the winters and the traffic. The music and the pizza are great. Sometimes the sports teams are okay, too. (Go Bulls!)

The prologue for Jimmy Stu Lives! appeared in the January 2011 issue of Rambunctious Review as a short story. Kent’s short stories have also appeared in Downstate Story, Chaffin Journal, Palo Alto Review, Iconoclast, Allegory, M-Brane SF, and Wild Violet. He publishes the zine Dumbfounding Stories for Southern Fandom Press Alliance, a venerable bastion of southern science-fiction fandom. He’s a member of The Writers, a critique group in Glencoe, Illinois, and belongs to The Chicago Writers Association, for which he reviews books at their Windy City Reviews site.